Measures of Pleasures

Measuring culture originated in cultural anthropology, but all social sciences contributed to comparative cultural studies. Tracing critical approaches towards a measurement of cultural values one is bound to strip the biases and stereotypes bare and to invade numerous academic fiefs. Hofstede defined interdisciplinary cultural dimensions but failed to anchor studying of culture's consequences in the academia. Measuring culture (rituals, patterns, business recipes, symbols, standards) we end up measuring values and competence in management of knowledge and skills, of norms and behaviours, cutting many corners of established disciplines. Demanding, but should we fail to do so, our cross-cultural experiment with the European integration could result in the corrosion of character and bowling alone.integration;knowledge management;bias;cross-cultural measurements;learning standardscomparing values

Applying Real Options Thinking to Information Security in Networked Organizations

An information security strategy of an organization participating in a networked business sets out the plans for designing a variety of actions that ensure confidentiality, availability, and integrity of company’s key information assets. The actions are concerned with authentication and nonrepudiation of authorized users of these assets. We assume that the primary objective of security efforts in a company is improving and sustaining resiliency, which means security contributes to the ability of an organization to withstand discontinuities and disruptive events, to get back to its normal operating state, and to adapt to ever changing risk environments. When companies collaborating in a value web view security as a business issue, risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis techniques are necessary and explicit part of their process of resource allocation and budgeting, no matter if security spendings are treated as capital investment or operating expenditures. This paper contributes to the application of quantitative approaches to assessing risks, costs, and benefits associated with the various components making up the security strategy of a company participating in value networks. We take a risk-based approach to determining what types of security a strategy should include and how much of each type is enough. We adopt a real-options-based perspective of security and make a proposal to value the extent to which alternative components in a security strategy contribute to organizational resiliency and protect key information assets from being impeded, disrupted, or destroyed

The Nexus between Exchange Rate Variation and Economic Growth in Nigeria

This research paper is centered on the nexus between exchange rate variation and economic growth in Nigeria with emphasis to the purchasing power of the average Nigerians and the level of international transaction. Exchange rate fluctuations have been of serious concern to the monetary authorities, policy makers and business tycoons of developing countries, Nigeria inclusive because of the relevance of exchange rate in international trade, investment and in determining the level of output growth of a country. Therefore it is vital to examine the degree at which exchange rate fluctuates which had called for a lot of attention in Nigeria. This study examined the Impact of Exchange Rate Fluctuation on the Nigerian Economic Growth using an annual data of forty-three (43) years covering the period (1970-2013). The standard deviation method was employed to capture and estimate the fluctuation inherent in the model as regards the research’s objective. The study employed econometric techniques such as; Multiple Regression Model, Augmented Dickey Fuller (ADF) test, Johansen Co-integration test and the Error Correction Model (ECM). Evidence from this study exhibited that there exists a positive but insignificant impact of exchange rate fluctuation on Nigerian economic growth in both the long run and short run. This result is attributed to the ability of the Nigerian government to effectively regulate some other important macroeconomic variables which can infuriate exchange rate which has thereby helped curtail the effects of exchange rate fluctuation during the study period. This is an indication that monetary authorities might have initiated policies that helped absorb the influence of exchange rate fluctuation on economic growth in Nigeria. Therefore, the government should encourage domes-tic production of goods and services for Naira exchange rate appreciation and generally to promote economic growth in Nigeria- moreover to maintain and sustain exchange rate and economic stability. In the same vein, the government should pay more attention to other more volatile macroeconomic variables like oil price and inflation rate in Nigeria. Research paper Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Amassoma, D. (2017). “The Nexus between Ex-change Rate Variation and Economic Growth in Nigeria”, Journal of Entrepreneurship, Business and Economics, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 1–40

The Economic Costs and Benefits of Self-Managed Teams Among Skilled Technicians

This paper estimates the economic costs and benefits of implementing teams among highly-skilled technicians in a large regional telecommunications company. It matches individual survey and objective performance data for 230 employees in matched pairs of traditionally-supervised and self-managed groups. Multivariate regressions with appropriate controls show that teams do the work of supervisors in 60-70% less time, reducing indirect labor costs by 75 percent per team. Objective measures of quality and labor productivity are unaffected. Team members receive additional overtime pay that represents a 4-5 percent annual wage premium, which may be viewed alternatively as a share in the productivity gains associated with innovation or as a premium for learning skills